I know people are not clamoring to visit Fig Tree Christian on Thanksgiving, to see what sage words of wisdom I have to share with the masses. I know this day can be stressful, and sometimes frustrating.

Let me leave you with something to consider:

If you are worried about whether the turkey is going to be too dry, or if you will be able to get back out to get that amazing Black Friday deal, there are bigger needs out there today.

Three and a half million people in America will or have already experienced homelessness this year.

Every day 21,000 people from around the world perish from hunger or hunger related causes.

This isn't to take away from your specific celebrations. Just take a moment and realize where our focus should go. Love your family, because whether they voted the same way you did, they are the only family you've got. Appreciate your meal, because it's there, and you get to share it with others. Remember, God's blessing is often found in the mundane. Don't overlook what you have.

On November 5th, 2012 Fig Tree Christian was officially launched as an online platform to connect and reach out to those online. So much has changed in those five years. I want to take today, and look back, thank, and celebrate everything that has been accomplished.

The Evolution of the platform

On July 12th, 2012, this website went live with the first meditation. Back then, those meditations were a couple paragraphs long, with no pictures or formatting. Nothing really existed aside from that. Then, four months later, I launched Fig Tree Christian publicly. I started adding images, and the first video was part of a Christmas mediation. It's okay, I'll say it. The video, while nicely edited, is not engaging. Early on, I pulled from the examples around me. There is a tone of voice female ministers have for videos and for sermons. While I believed I was moving beyond those voices, I used them fully, making myself unrelatable in the process. It is really difficult to watch these early videos. Which is good. It means while Fig Tree has grown, I have grown with it.

Since then, we have had bible studies, devotionals, and live casts. We even have a place for congregants to chat and share news.

Our Previous Anniversaries

​It still shocks me when I go to public events and state that I'm the minister of Fig Tree Christian. I'm never prepared, because there is almost always someone who knows who I am or what Fig Tree is. The truth is, you can count heads on a Sunday morning, but you can never count the reach of the internet. Even then, there were times I felt I was yelling like the Whos down in Whoville: "We are here! We are here!"

That last sentence probably explains my personal call, and what this 5th Anniversary is about. I can't make others like, care, understand, or at least politely nod at me or what I'm doing. I spent my childhood terrified to even sneeze wrong, in fear that someone wouldn't like me. I knew the phrase, "You can't please everyone 100% of the time," but I didn't learn the phrase until I became an adult. There will always be someone who will dislike me. There will always be someone who will never get me.

I can't change that, but I can decide how my actions affect others. I can make the solid choice to find something good and redeemable in every person I encounter, (even the ones who cannot find the same in me.) It's part of being glue. (A theme that seems to back.) Fig Tree exists not because we are the popular choice, or the one most mainstream voices even understand. Fig Tree exists because we can reach out to the broken and simply share, "We hear you." "You are not alone." That is what this year is about. I can talk about Fig Tree's accomplishments and the awesome things we've done over the years, but the truth is this: The most awesome thing that has happened, the greatest and most stupendous accomplishment Fig Tree has offered, is something that can't be quantified.

People lost in the internet wilderness felt the love of God, and knew it was real. Those are the fruits of Fig Tree. God willing, we will grow, and continue to let people know they are loved and included in the Body of Christ. May that be the message I bring in 5 years at our 10th Anniversary.

Advent is just around the corner. Do you have a devotional?

Click the image on the right, and check out ours! As always, there are awesome writers, and you can download the PDF for free!

The words I used for the title came from Charlie Anderson, the father in the musical Shenandoah.

Written in the mid-70's, Shenandoah is set at the beginning of Civil War in Virginia. Anderson, who is a widower, had a brood of children, and a nice plot of land. He doesn't want to enter the war, because he doesn't believe it's his war to fight. Eventually, all that changes when his youngest son is kidnapped by Union Soldiers. It's a bittersweet story of humanity's brokenness. If there was a musical that deserves a revival it is this one. It speaks to the tensions that naturally exists when the very people you are apparently against are your very own brothers and sisters. It is a musical for today.

"They always have a holy cause to march us on to war." -Charlie Anderson

Last Sunday, the deadliest Church shooting in American History happened. Twenty-Six people between the age of 6 to 72 were killed, and twenty more are still in the hospital from gun shot wounds. It all seems so sureal. It was only the week before the massacre that First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs set aside time to specifically pray for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting.

The human mind cannot comprehend senselessness. This is why conspiracy theories exist. We will make up outlandish theories just so we have a reason for something that lacks understanding. 9/11 Truthers, the JFK Grassy Knoll, yes, even the faked moon landing; These are all examples that the real truth was too much to take. Ludicrous ideas were better than facing what really happened. With the moon landing, it was biblical. It forced us to see a world where God was not in the sky. Christians already had prayers that expanded God's heaven, but it was still earth shaking news. The 9/11 Truthers and the Grassy Knoll people just couldn't accept the answer-less truth. Some horrible things have no good answers.

I can almost touch the hem of the Sutherland loss. In other words, there is no way I could fathom what they are going through, but my daughter is six and my son is ten.. My world is filled with potential moments. While it is a clouded future, there are future tears and giggles headed my way. I'll cry at graduations. I'll celebrate acceptance letters. I'll cry again when they finally step out into the world to blaze their trails. God willing, some day I'll see my two beautiful kids make families of their own. I can barely imagine what it would be like to see that potential wiped away with speeding bullets.

I'd want answers. I'd want solutions. The idea that nothing could be done to bring back that potential would turn me into a puddle of inconsolable tears on my bathroom floor.

"I've heard it all before."​-Charlie Anderson

Trauma has the ability to draw us together or inch us further apart. It all depends how society reacts to it.

It's just not helpful to play out whether the situation would have been mostly adverted if the congregation was packing, or if all the weapons were completely banned. Yet, we are going to dust off those old tired arguments like our point of view is going to mend the symbolic and physical wounds.

Then there are those who immediately mock those who are going to pray.

I'll be the first to say, those who use prayer as a throwaway comment. As in, they say they are going to pray so they can admit to doing something, are as useless as those who do hashtag campaigns. #bringbackourgirls.

Here's the thing:We react too quickly. Ninety-nine percent of the time those reactions are poor. They don't help anything. We just know the action was senseless, and our collective nature needs us to make sense of it. It doesn't matter if our reactions make things worse. At least we said something. At least we took a side. It doesn't matter if you do anything once you take that side. We are just dividing ourselves further, while a community continues to mourn.

That's the real tragedy. We can't let them mourn. We must take a side.and make their tragedy a side note; taking a broken situation, and adding new levels of brokenness to it.

I've heard it all before. They always have a holy cause, to march us on to war. Let's be Charlie Anderson. Let's say no.

Over the past month I've used my past to discuss how I was part of the current problem with the church. I'm doing this because all of us within the church are guilty, and someone has to be the example for others. Part of embracing God's grace, is admitting our fallibleness. ​​

After the youth walked out of the church, we planted a new church. The reason being, we wanted to stay together without changing the dynamic of another group. Eventually, my family left. My stepmother wanted something for her elementary school daughter, and the only programming at this plant was for middle and high school kids. So, if you were part of that plant, and wondered why- well now you know why.

We ended up joining (what I would call) a medium sized church. It had around 200 active members each week. It was nice to get to know some new youth. It was a different dynamic. They were ready to step up and do something amazing. This church was the fertile soil for ministry. They nurtured my call, and allowed me to play around with my potential. I say all this to express how fully I fell in love with this church. No one could possibly understand the impact this church has had on the Body of Christ as a whole. Like I said last week, the problem is among the reviled and the loved. There are no easy answers here.

At this church, there was this amazing Elder. He was super involved in the life of the church. He sung in the choir, participated in board meetings, and enthusiastically added to the general atmosphere of church life. Everyone knew he was gay. His significant other sang in the choir. The church had a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. He could continue what he was doing, as long as he was secretive about it.

This couple felt very loved in this congregation. They felt so loved, that he decided it was appropriate to come out. When he did, members of the church quietly told him to step down. Extremely hurt, both him and his partner left. (This was the middle to late ninety's)

I asked someone why they took action after these men had been in the church for so long. This member said, “He said he was gay, so we had to tell him to step down.” I responded, “Did you know he was gay before he told you he was gay?” She grimly responded, “Yes, but when he openly said it, we had to act on it.”

I stayed silent. I sat back.

Churches like to play these word games to stay within the rules. As a female, I get it all the time. I can talk about God and be called to be a public speaker. Once I’m called a minister, or speak publicly at 11am on a Sunday it’s a sin. I can visit homebound and be a great member of the Body of Christ. The second I call it Pastoral Care it’s a sin. He can be an Elder because even though we know he’s gay, he hasn’t publicly stated it. The moment he thought our love was enough, and he opened up, was the moment we shot him down.

This particular church has, had and continues to have the problem of speaking up against oppression and injustice when it's directly related to them.. I fell in line. I should have been the voice to speak up against the hypocrisy. Either it was wrong to make him an Elder, and it shouldn’t have happened to begin with, or it was wrong to take away the pastoral role when he verbally stated what everyone already knew. I believe it was the later, but that voice needed to be spoken. I stayed silent.

The Problem: Being a Christian isn’t like maneuvering around some legal document. Wrong actions don’t magically become right because we cross some “t’s” or step left instead of right. When we treat the bible like it’s a legal document, we take the Spirit out of the text. We take the purpose out of the actions. Rules exist for a purpose. Once the purpose has no meaning, or the meaning was inherently wrong, we should do away with the rule. Christianity is about the community. When we lose sight of the people we are trying to help, we forget the mission and the call.

What I learned: I loved this church. This was the first time I had seen people who I looked at in a loving way, do something that wasn’t loving at all. This was the 90’s, where the problem within the church existed, but wasn’t epidemic. It was also a lesson in standing up for the oppressed. That’s not an easy choice. I should have spoken up. I should not have been one of the voices that were silent. I echoed the emptiness of the moment. I learned that doing the right thing, sometimes means you stand against people you care about. It sometimes means you stand alone.

Advent is closer than you think. We will have a devotionals here in December. If you want your own copy, you can download the PDF or get the Kindle edition. Check this out on our Upcoming Events page.